Chapter 106 - Left Behind, Forgotten, and Returned (3)

Dawn broke.

The darkness that had visited Winter Castle overnight vanished with the dawn. However, its traces remained.

Corpses filled the area in every direction.

The soldiers of Winter Castle gathered the corpses in one place. Whether their limbs were torn or their bodies were charred by fire, they piled them in the clearing before the castle gates just as they were.

And they set them on fire.

The bodies of the fallen, which had lain buried beneath the snow unrecovered for hundreds of years, burned with acrid smoke.

No one opened their mouths to speak. The Rangers and knights merely watched the sight in silence.

I, too, stood on the castle walls with them and watched the corpses burn. I watched the four hundred years of sorrow contained within them scatter away.

The fire did not die out until dusk.

* * *

"There are quite a few wounded, but there are no dead."

Perhaps thanks to the knights actively participating in the battle from the start, miraculously, no one had died. Or perhaps it was because the undead, trapped in deeply frozen corpses, had sluggish movements.

Thanks to that, there were only many soldiers who suffered wounds from the teeth and nails of the undead, but no one perished.

"Make sure to comfort the soldiers well."

"Do not worry."

Having finished his report, Vincent, for some reason, did not leave. He seemed to have something to say.

"What is it?"

After hesitating for a long time, Vincent spoke.

"It is late, but congratulations."

"For what?"

"Are you not the kingdom's youngest Sword Master?"

Vincent smiled widely as he said that.

It was a very late congratulation.

Then again, it wasn't exactly a situation where we had the leisure to exchange congratulations.

I chuckled and told him to go back and rest, but Vincent looked like he still had more to say.

"And I am sorry."

Then, out of nowhere, Vincent apologized.

"House Ballorhard will never forget what Your Highness sacrificed."

His face was full of sorrow; I, for one, could not understand what he meant at all.

"I will grow stronger. Both I and Winter Castle. So that Your Highness will never have to bear the burden alone again."

I was about to ask for the reason, but closed my mouth again.

Vincent's expression as he declared his resolve was far too resolute.

Whatever the reason, I did not want to ruin that determination.

So I simply told him that I would look forward to it.

After Vincent left, the High Lich came to find me.

I told her about the final moments of the Death Knights.

"It seems they still had unresolved regrets."

"All the duties bestowed upon them four hundred years ago came to an end. There is no way they have any remaining tasks."

"Do not be so hasty. You will find out whenever the time they spoke of comes."

I found myself inadvertently agreeing with her words.

After all, there was no way those knights, who had not forgotten their righteous hearts even in death, would do anything harmful to the kingdom now.

My only concern was Gawain and the knight candidates.

It was because I had clearly seen the fading specters seeping into their bodies.

"As long as they do not forcibly take over the bodies, it will not cause much harm, so do not worry. They simply needed a place to sleep for a while."

Then again, the bodies of Gawain and the candidates would be quite suitable for the Death Knights to rest in.

Their blind loyalty toward the King, and the identical Mana Heart. Both the wavelength of their souls and the energy within their bodies were exactly the same.

"I see."

I gave her a glance and grabbed a glass of liquor.

I didn't like alcohol, but today it felt like I needed to drink at least a little.

I emptied my glass in memory of the soldiers and knights who perished on Mount Frost four hundred years ago.

And I emptied the glass again in memory of the spirits of House Ballorhard, who could only now finally be given a proper funeral.

"To the loyal knights."

Finally, I offered another glass to the loyal knights who lived only for the King even in death.

* * *

Three days passed after the battle with the dead ended.

"Ominous rumors are circulating within the castle."

"Things like seeing ghosts, or seeing shadows hiding in the dark."

It seemed the wounds inflicted by the dead were quite deep after all.

Seeing how such childish rumors—hardly even worth calling ghost stories—were spreading among tough men who never backed down even against terrible monsters.

"Having seen specters howl and corpses reanimate right before their eyes, it is not strange for them to see illusions. But this, too, will be forgotten with time."

Such absurd ghost stories would disappear without a trace as time passed.

That was what I thought.

Until I ran into them while strolling through the castle after sunset the next day.

As usual, I had ended up getting kicked out by Ophelia for being a distraction to her concentration.

Since I was also feeling down because of what happened a few days ago, I wandered aimlessly around the castle.

Late at night, a time when no one was awake except the sentries on watch. One corner of the fortress was somehow noisy.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE.

CHOMP, CHOMP.

I followed the grating sound and arrived at the kitchen.

"Hm?"

There were familiar faces there.

It was Gawain and the candidates.

They must be hungry after training late into the night, I thought, and was about to turn around when Gawain and the candidates spotted me and bowed their heads.

"Finish what you were eating."

I waved my hand and turned around. But then I froze in place.

I turned my body back around.

The three men, who had been ravenously depleting the kitchen's ingredients, stopped their meal and stared blankly at me.

"Would you like to join us?"

Our eyes met as Gawain stuffed a chunk of dripping bloody meat into his mouth and asked me.

It was a perfectly ordinary pleasantry; there was nothing special about it at all.

That is, if they weren't former secret knights of the Royal Family who were itching to tear me apart.

They were men who had taken up their swords out of hatred and resentment toward me.

After returning from The Capital, they no longer showed blatant hostility toward me like before, but our relationship hadn't improved to the point where they would bow and pay their respects first.

Yet those men had spoken to me first, even if it was just a polite greeting.

It was strange, an incomprehensible action.

So I asked them.

"Who are you?"

Gawain nonchalantly replied to my question.

"How could you not recognize your own subordinate?"

I chuckled.

Gawain calling himself my subordinate was enough to make a passing dog laugh.

"Don't spout bullshit."

At my words, Gawain and the men exchanged glances.

Just then, a bizarre wavelength caught my senses.

A transmission of will that could not be understood by human senses; it was clearly the wavelength of telepathy.

Somehow, I felt like I knew who they were.

"Reveal your true identities."

"Whatever do you mean..."

Gawain's tone and expression as he feigned ignorance felt somewhat familiar.

"Is that you, Eus?"

At my question, Gawain—or more accurately, the Death Knight wearing Gawain's mask, Eus—flinched and froze.

I looked at him as he shut his mouth, then turned my head.

There was one man with his eyes squeezed shut, and another looking at me with an awkward face.

"Ekion and Edar, I see."

No sooner had I finished speaking than the unique wavelengths of telepathy began to fly around wildly.

『I told you we shouldn't do this.』

『What are you talking about? You were the one who agreed to it earlier.』

『This is a disaster. A complete disaster.』

They seemed to be deeply agitated.

Seeing how their thoughts were overflowing so much that they were even leaking into me.

『Should we run?』

『I judge it best to just feign ignorance until the very end.』

『Or how about we knock him out and run away?』

『He's already seen everything, so what's the point now? Besides, considering the martial prowess and level we witnessed that day, subduing him is impossible.』

『He doesn't even have a sword right now. There are three of us. And we have a blade.』

『If you can call a meat-slicing knife a blade, then I suppose it's a blade.』

Their little conspiracy entered my ears loud and clear.

If I kept listening quietly, their conspiracy was going to turn into a plot for murder to silence me, so I abruptly shouted.

"Knock who out?!"

『Did he hear that?』

『I think he heard it.』

"I can hear you just fine, so shut your mouths!"

The telepathy the three Ekion brothers were exchanging came to a sudden halt.

Looking at the three men staring at me with awkward faces, I massaged my forehead.

Now I finally remembered.

Having reached the edge of the Extraordinary Grade, the three Ekion brothers were among the finest of the Royal Knights, and they were also the most promising rising stars.

Because they were the youngest knights in the order.

When the three brothers fell at Mount Frost, their ages were twenty for Ekion, nineteen for Eus, and eighteen for Edar, respectively.

Regardless of their skill, they had been at the prime age for causing trouble.

Right. Even back then, those brats gave me quite a headache.

Recalling the past a step late, I looked at Gawain, who was rolling his eyes around shiftily, and spoke.

"Eus. You were the one who instigated this, weren't you."

Even in the past, the ringleader was always the overly cheerful middle child, Eus.

"No, I wasn't."

Listening to Eus's flimsy excuse, I thought to myself.

To the loyal knights, my ass.

Looking at the unchanging troublemakers, I clutched my head.

* * *

『It just felt somewhat unfair to quietly go to sleep.』

Gawain—rather, Eus in Gawain's body—rambled his excuse.

Saying that he couldn't hold back since they finally had bodies for the first time in forever. That he wanted to enjoy the things they couldn't without physical forms.

"And that was just eating?"

『Somehow, I just couldn't suppress my appetite. You might find it funny, but it's a serious problem for us.』

Contrary to Eus's words, I didn't find their desires funny at all.

Because I could completely understand them.

When I, too, had obtained a human body, the very first thing I indulged in was the joy of eating.

Back then, I felt that alone made becoming human worth it.

Though they couldn't perfectly remember it, having spent a long time as spirits whose hunger was never satisfied, their surging appetite would only be greater than mine, not less.

They hadn't completely stolen the bodies, nor were they draining their life force.

They weren't filling their bellies by biting into other people's bodies, either.

They merely went on a brief night stroll while the bodies' original owners were asleep.

"Make sure to restrain yourselves so as not to harm the owners of the bodies."

『I assure you, we have never done anything to harm the bodies' owners.』

『In case their stamina would wane because of us, we even consistently gathered energy for them.』

『But are you really letting this slide?』

There was nothing to understand or not understand. When I myself was occupying someone else's body, who was I to reprimand whom?

Even if I didn't understand, would they really behave obediently just because I told them to?

I shook my head.

Not a chance.

I laid out an appropriate boundary for the troublemakers.

"One hour a day. But without anyone else knowing."

Watching them nod so vigorously that their heads might fall off, I ended up chuckling.

"But you're speaking formally to me all of a sudden."

『Well, you do have a status now, after all.』

Eus replied shrewdly to my words.

"I like how quick you are to adapt."

Encouraged by my remark, Eus spoke in a sly tone.

『And our presence will only be a benefit to these guys; it won't be a detriment.』

『There are scattered manas inside this friend's body that he cannot use. It's a form I've never seen before, but fragmented and shattered shards are embedded throughout his whole body. It must have been quite painful to circulate mana.』

『It won't be possible in a short time, but if we put in the effort over a long period, he will no longer feel pain every time he gathers energy. And if he's lucky, he might be able to absorb all of that energy.』

『Wouldn't that be enough of a price for using their bodies?』

I froze at the three brothers' frantic telepathy.

Because I felt like I knew what the mana shards spreading through their bodies were.

It was definitely the mana of their destroyed Mana Circuits—the very ones they possessed up until a few years ago, which they lost because of the original owner of this body.

In other words, the energy corresponding to a whopping three Mana Circuits was absorbed into Gawain and the candidates' bodies.

I looked at the three Ekion brothers.

『Still, using the bodies of the living as we please is a grave mistake. We will refrain...』

"No."

I cut off Ekion as he spoke with his head bowed like a sinner.

"You don't need to refrain. As long as you don't cross the line, it's fine. Keep doing what you're doing."

Looking at the three Ekion brothers, I added one more thing.

"And tell the others as well; it would be even better if they could help the knights absorb the mana shards scattered in their bodies."

It seemed the knights who had been reduced to cripples might be able to regain their former levels faster than I thought.

Laughter escaped me.

Though it was not a sin I had committed, it was ultimately the karma I had to bear,

And now that a way to compensate for that karma even a little had appeared, how could I not laugh?

Even though I would not be able to compensate for the time they had spent living as cripples.

『Are you really going to turn a blind eye?』

"I'll continue to pretend I don't know anything from now on."

It wasn't my body, nor was it causing any harm.

There was no reason to miss out on the opportunity.

* * *

Three more days passed after meeting the three Ekion brothers who had been roaming the night.

I finished preparing to leave the castle, and leading only a small number of knights who followed me, I headed for The Capital.

Winter Castle's crisis had passed, and the King's test had already ended.

Now, all that remained was to settle the delayed accounts.

We rode our horses without rest.

And finally, we arrived at The Capital, and I immediately sought out the King.

The King greeted me with a stiff face.

"I have come to receive the promised reward."

Looking at the King, I smiled pleasantly.